Trump-Putin summit scheduled for July 16
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on July 16 in Helsinki, both of their governments announced Thursday, setting the stage for a high-profile attempt to soothe tensions between the United States and Russia.
Both Trump and Putin have pursued the tete-atete in hopes of moving beyond friction over Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and its aggression in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Shortly before the summit date and venue were announced, Trump took to Twitter, relaying that Russia continues to deny interfering in the 2016 election and airing grievances regarding the probe of special counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between Putin’s government and Trump’s campaign. The summit meeting is expected to include a one-on-one meeting between Trump and Putin, a working breakfast and a joint news conference, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
The Kremlin and the White House are discussing a possible joint statement that Putin and Trump would issue at the summit with a plan for improving bilateral relations, Ushakov said.
The meeting “has huge significance for both Russia and for America,” Ushakov said. “I think it will be the main international event of the summer.” “Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!” Trump wrote as part of tweets in which he also disparaged former FBI director James Comey and once again claimed that the investigation is tainted by partisan bias.
Finland, officially neutral during the Cold War and not a NATO member, shares a border with Russia, and its president, Sauli Niinisto, has fostered a relationship with Putin.
In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump and Putin would “discuss relations between the United States and Russia and a range of national security issues.”
Niinisto said the agenda would be decided in coming weeks, adding that Trump and Putin would “certainly discuss the overall international situation and hopefully also arms control and disarmament issues” during their meeting in the Finnish capital.
“Even small steps in reducing tensions would be in everybody’s interest,” Niinisto said in a statement.